Assassin's Tango
by The Sky Pirate Girl
Summary: "I'll find you. I'll find you, Quisty, wherever you go. This is not the last time we see each other, I swear." "Promise me." She hisses, squeezing his hand. "Vow to me." "I vow. I promise. Always." He has always remembered, at least a little. She had forgotten it all. Seiftis, reuploaded.


_I. In vain, we come together once more_

She is smiling. Not shyly or innocently, but like a predator - coyly, confidently. She already sees her target.

"You wouldn't miss the chance to ask the lady for a dance, General Tius?" she asks the man and her voice is like a soft red dress (like the one she is wearing).

The man almost chokes on his wine.

"Nadine?"

"Yes?" she purrs.

"Here? What?" He takes in her appearance.

"A dance? Come, come now - you know I'm not used to be the one who invites and waits."

"Of course." The General sets his wine on the platter of one of the passing waiters.

He takes her hand.

Her smile widens.

"What are you doing here?" he asks her.

"In the convention or at the party?"

He looks at her neckline.

"Both," he says, dazed.

"I'm one of the representatives of course," she replies smoothly.

They dance.

"Look," he says. "I have to tell you -"

"Tius, where are the -"

A hand on the man's shoulder. Rough, full of small cuts from too much practice with gunblades.

"Seifer." She is mildly irritated by his interruption.

"May I?" he asks the General.

A nod.

She moans. "Why?"

"Inconvenient time?" he asks arrogantly as he takes her hand (she feels a thrill but does not acknowledge it). He draws her too hard into his arms and she falls (into his chest).

"_Yes_," she says and digs her nails into his shoulder.

She doesn't succeed in wiping that smile off his face.

"You've changed your hair style."

"It was for the sake of the job."

"It suits you better this way - brown and loose." She looks more confident, more powerful.

"This tux doesn't suit you at all," she observes, but it is a false observation.

He is dashing.

"Did Galbadia send you?"

She hated competition.

"Who else?" He lowers her and her hair almost brushes the floor.

He lifts her up and spins her in a circle.

She kneels down and searches for a bulge.

"You flatter me, Instructor," he tells her with a smirk. "I didn't know I could be _that_ charming."

"You flatter yourself," she retorts, throwing his gun into the far distance. "How is it possible that they let you climb so high in the ladder?"

"Everything is possible, Instructor," he whispers in her ear. She glares - she has lost her instructorship years ago. "'S long as you have the power." Two steps back. "Do you?"

"Do I what?" she breaths.

A step forward.

"Have the strength." His lips are dangerously close.

"Oh, I wonder..." She is a changed woman now - gone is the need to prove herself to anyone, gone is the dependence on the opinion of everyone else. Gone is her easily-breakable heart.

(Not that she's lost it - it's just become tougher, rougher, on fire - only waiting for an object to enflame. He's in her reach.)

He lifts her chin -

Her leg is between his thighs and he gasps.

"This is going to be difficult," he concludes.

"Why are you dancing with me?"

"Should I not?"

"_Yes_. Do you want to distract me from my target?"

"So General Tius is the target..." Oh, the little...

She hisses and tries to get away from him.

His grip on her tightens.

"I, unlike many others, won't ever abandon you, Quis-" She kicks him in the shin.

"I won't grieve if you do. Believe me." _And don't say my name!_

"Keep telling yourself that, _Trepe_." He smiles crookedly. "Even if you're not instructor anymore, I'm still your favorite student."

If she has lost her balance for a fraction of a second, only he would know.

Suddenly her back hits a wall and he is obnoxiously close.

"Come back with me," he offers.

"To where? To some godforsaken ruins?" she challenges.

"To where we were happy."

A short pause.

"No."

There is an explosion.

_Damn_. His face says.

Damn, indeed. The Gardens have arrived too early.

"Until the next time, Quistis." He turns to go. She scowls.

"Farewell, Seifer."

_II. If wishes were horses_

Later when she is in a train to Esthar and regards the truck that contains her red dress, she feels furious.

It is soaked with the smell and the memory of him.

Her train passes lavender fields and vineyards and she looks at the people who are hurrying to harvest the vines since the rain period would soon arrive.

She regards them with interest and their life strikes her as blissfully simple.

They have their houses, their families, and their lives consist of winemaking. Their only problem seems to be the weather.

The woman looks at the sky and listens to the wind through the open window of her compartment and remembers the constant cry of the sea near the small orphanage.

She closes her eyes.

_III._ _The lady loves her will_

She's in Trabia on a solo mission (Trabia is in civil war at the time).

He is in the same hotel.

Through the earthquakes, the changeable weather, the unpredictable political mood and a bottle of tequila after a tiring day, she tries not to think about him.

In vain.

He is in the next room and though a hole in the wall, he yells a_ 'Night, Trepe - sleep tight'_ each time before he goes to sleep. Which is always too late.

She swears out loud one night and strides to the room next to hers.

Three hard knocks with her well-trained fists and the door is lazily opened.

The first thing she notices is his smirk.

"I knew you'd give into me sooner or later."

"Impossible."

"Stubborn, are we, Trepe?"

"Precisely. Give up?"

"Never," he vows.

"You know, there comes a point in time when a man should swallow his pride."

He looks at her expectantly.

"Well then, go on. I'm not stopping you."

She groans.

"Why don't you be a gentleman, _just once_, Seifer - and leave me alone? What happened to your romantic dream?"

His smile drops.

She leaves.

_IV. Igniting the Sea_

_It is morning. They're on a boat in the sea near Centra. He has made a breakfast for her and she thinks it is sweet of him._

_"A croissant and orange juice for my lady."_

_She smiles as she takes the glass to her lips, but not before she has made sure the sheets are tightly around her torso._

_"Oh, come on. Nothing I've never seen before. Remember Quistis? - We've grown up together in a house by the __**sea**__, during eternally hot days and nights."_

_She frowns._

_"How can you be such a chevalier one moment, and such an ass in the next? What happened to your romantic dream?"_

_"You know you love me never-the-less." He grins at her, but his eyes remain questioning._

_She pursues her lips together and his smile falls._

_She laughs at him._

_"Oh, you silly man! Come here!" She sets the platter on the nightstand._

_He throws herself into her arms, kissing her fervently on the neck, the chin, the nose - wherever his lips would fall._

_"Those are..." she breathes in-between kisses. "... the best... two weeks... of my life."_

_"Couldn't agree with you... more."_

_V. How I wonder_

She is at a cocktail night in Esthar, looking thoughtfully at the cherry in her dried glass.

It's a party in which representatives of both of the remaining Gardens are invited.

A hand on her shoulder. Green, cat-like eyes in front of her. A smirk on his lips.

Figures.

"Won't you ever give up on chasing after me?"

"Never." The single word always manages to blow away her every thought. "A dance?" he asks.

"No," she replies sweetly and goes to Zell and Rinoa who are at the far corner of the ball-room.

Soon Selphie comes to them too and hugs the brown-haired girl.

"Let me see it again!" she squeals. Rinoa gushes and shows her the big ring on her left finger.

Quistis smiles, if a bit aloof.

"How did you manage to afford such a stone, _Zell_?" Seifer asks from behind her. They're grown up now and at least the old nicknames are put aside. "I bet you had to go on at least twenty solo missions for it." The look Rinoa gives him is deadly. "Oh, hey there, princess." He turns to Selphie in a mock-whisper. "Careful now, shrimp. She's been with almost all of the guys of our old gang, who knows? Might take your cowboy next."

Zell hits him.

Seifer swears and walks away, brushing away the blood of his mouth with a thumb.

"Bastard," Irvine says and Quistis couldn't agree more.

_VI. The knave of hearts, what did he truly steal?_

_She is calmed by the feeling of the sea wash at her feet, as if it is washing away her grief with its waves._

_By sunset, she sees the small orphanage._

_The lights are on and there is the alluring smell of home-made spaghetti. She knows it's Seifer and almost smiles as childhood memories of Matron teaching them how to make pasta surface._

_She slowly enters the small house, her trunk behind her. She enters the kitchen._

_"Trepe?" Seifer asks in astonishment. "What are you doing here, Instructor?" His tone is not one of intimidation or harshness, simply of surprise._

_She takes a deep breath._

_"I'm coming back home." He opens his mouth to speak but she interrupts him. "Edea asked me to come and convince you to go to Galbadia Garden. She's talked to them and they've agreed to accept you."_

_The glass of wine he is holding slips from his grasp. He swears and kneels to gather the broken pieces._

_"Then why didn't __**she**__ come here instead of you?" he throws the question at her._

_"...She's not available."_

_"Why? Too busy mothering after the rest of the Liberi Fatali?" Once the most famous people of the world, now merely shadows in the history._

_"As a matter of fact - __**yes**,__" she seethes._

_"Whoa, whoa - what crawled up your ass today, Trepe?" he asks. "Do you still drag your broken heart after you what with Princess and Icicle's wedding?"_

_"He's dead, Seifer," she tells him._

_"Who?"_

_"Squall. Squall's dead." Seifer stares at her for one frozen moment and then hisses as he looks down at his hands -they're bleeding because he has squeezed the glass pieces too hard._

_"How?" he manages to choke, never-the-less._

_"In a mission. The fool..." Her voice breaks and she takes in a deep breath. __**This will not break her.**__ "He thought he could take the whole Anti-Sorceress Organization with but a few SeeDs, after the attack on Rinoa last week."_

_"Why are you not there for the funeral?" he asks after a moment of silence._

_She doesn't reply but he understands mutely._

_VII. The queen's heart_

She follows him outside of the building.

His back is calmly rested against a wall, his hands are folded and she knows he knew she would come after him.

"Prepare." He doesn't need to be told twice.

She runs so fast to him it's like a flash and she aims straight for his head, but he catches her hand and tries to counterattack. She dodges and kicks him.

It's a long battle in which nobody wins, or loses. All of their battles are like that.

Assassin's tango.

Afterwards, it is her that bandages the wound on his leg (but not before he has bandages her bleeding arm).

"Quistis," he calls her.

"Yes?" she murmurs, not really listening him.

"Aren't you tired?"

"Of what?"

He takes her hands and pulls her up to his level.

"We've spent almost all our lives, searching for the weaknesses of the other. We've taken advantage of them and hit it where it hurts and then we've tended to those wounds," he whispers to her. Whenever he has something important to tell her, it always come in a whisper. "It wasn't always like this."

"I cannot remember my childhood, Seifer. All I remember are the big things, the big events, sometimes a bit more."

"I was a big event," he tells her boldly. She looks away.

"I'm sorry."

"Pax?" he asks hopefully.

She pulls away from him.

"No."

"Why? Won't _you_ ever give up on being so Hyne-damn stubborn, woman? You love me, I know you do. And I love you. I'm willing to give up on Galbadia for you, if you'll have me."

"And what is going to happen after you quit, Seifer? What?" she shouts, losing her nerve. "Nothing! Even if we're together, we'll be miserable because we will live with the knowledge that you gave up on your job because of me!"

"Why do you keep feeding yourself with your own lies and try to believe in them?"

"Because I'm getting married!"

An uneasy pause.

"What?"

"I'm getting married," she repeats, stepping away from him. "I'm getting married, alright?"

"You love him?" he asks simply, after a few swears and a deep draw of breath from both sides.

"Of - _of course_ I love him!" she shouts outrageously. "Goodbye, Seifer," she tells him as she walks away.

It feels so final her heart clenches.

_'Still drag your broken heart after you?'_

_I cannot let you have a power this great - to break my heart or to unbreak it._

_Because, Seifer... you're my only true weakness._

_As I am yours._

_VIII. My jolly sailor bold_

_Each day they travel together is a bliss and they see all the things they've always looked at during missions, but never really seen - Esthar, Trabia, Deiling, Fisherman's Horizon, Winhill... Each night is passion in its purest form._

_Each night is fire._

_And then one morning, the day after they've met the Fatali in Balamb, she tells him that she has to return._

_He nods, still holding her in his arms and doesn't seem to mind the single tear that slips on his chest._

_The next morning he is gone and she returns to her Garden._

_She asks her best friend, Xu, to keep tabs on him and not even a few days later she is told that Seifer Almasy has joined Galbadia._

_Soon after the competition between the two Gardens grows and the next time they see each other, it's as enemies._

_IX. The cock doth crow_

It's supposed to be the happiest day of her life.

It's supposed to -_ damn it_ - so why is it not?

She looks at herself in the mirror. White dress, symbol of purity. She can't help but laugh.

She's anything but pure.

Why couldn't Xu and the other girls just let her marry in her SeeD uniform?

She sighs.

Her fiancé and the world are waiting, so here she goes.

_X. Watch me burn_

The wedding is on a ship (her husband-to-be loves the sea).

She walks - head held up high, quick steps, pride on her face like a permanent make-up.

She searches for Edea but finds her mother's face not as sweet.

"Matron, don't look so sad! For Quisty!" Irvine pleads.

The bride turns her gaze towards her fiancé again and her heart bursts, because for a second it's not his face she sees -

"How can I look anything but sad, Irvine - ?" Edea asks and suddenly stops herself. The woman then lowers her voice, but the bride's well-trained ears hear it all-the-same. "Another of my boys is gone!"

Irvine's here. Quistis checks frantically, her eyes widening.

Zell's holding Rinoa and they're both smiling as brightly as they can (but it's a false brightness, she notices now).

Squall's been dead for years.

The bride throws her veil and her bouquet on the ground and in five quick steps - to the astonishment of all her guests, and the priest, and the groom - she is clutching Irvine's collar.

"What happened to him?"she demands.

"Pardon?" he chokes.

"Don't play dumb on me, Irvine! What happened to Seifer?"

It's Rinoa who tells her however.

"He was caught by a terrorist group last month. No one knows what happened to him. And we're not exactly on the best terms with Galbadia, even after the peace meeting, to ask if they know anything..."

Quistis looks at them, wild rage in her eyes, shooting a glare like a bullet at each of her friends.

"You all knew? And you didn't tell me? Xu?" She looks at the best friend who not a day ago had firmly told her to use the white classic dress on her wedding, and not a boring uniform.

"I'm sorry..." Xu lowers her head. "I wanted to tell you, but they wouldn't let me."

"You should have... you should have..." She feels the air escaping her lungs far too quickly and chokes.

Her groom is now by her side.

"Quistis, what's the matter?" he whispers in her ear.

"Don't!" she yells and backs away to the railing. "Just... don't."

She trips and falls.

Into the sea.

"Quistis!" is the last thing she hears before her ears are flooded with water.

The only thing they find from her later is her wedding dress.

Meanwhile, Quistis swims to the coast of Fisherman's horizon.

She's set on not giving up on him, on finding him.

Always... She now remembers.

_XI. Cross your heart_

_Her childish heart which would soon be forgotten, locked away by her subconsciousness and guardian forces and half-gods, grieves like never before._

_"I'll find you," he tells her, mere minutes before the Trepes come to take her away. Of course he'd know to find her under the table. He hides with her. "I'll find you, Quisty, wherever you go. This is not the last time we see each other, I swear."_

_"Promise me," she hisses, squeezing his hand. "Vow to me."_

_"I vow. I promise. Always."_

_He is her best friend._

_"Don't ever give up on me."_

_"__**Never**__."_

_"Seifer..."_

_"There you are!" Matron exclaims and removes the covers of the table. She takes her by the hand and leads her out. She murmurs something as the girl is getting in the car and Quistis later imagines it was an 'I love you' or 'please have a happy life'._

_From the back window, she watches him chase the car of the Trepes for miles._

_**I'll never forget you. I'll never ever stop waiting for you. It's a promise... a vow...**_

He has always remembered, at least a little.

She had forgotten it all.

_XII. When she comes_

Had she been any other woman, she'd have gone to Balamb or Galbadia Garden and demanded assistance.

But she is Quistis Trepe and she would make it alone. She would sneak and fight her way to the place Seifer is imprisoned in, or else... if he is... she'd seek _bloody vengeance_.

It takes her a few hours to hack into Galbadia's system and understand which is the organization that had captured him, and if he is still alive.

He is, but Galbadia doesn't have the interest, cannot allow the money he costs, to retrieve him.

It takes her a few more days to prepare for her rescue mission - maps, weapons and information she has to steal, clothes, potions - mainly phoenix downs - magicks...

She crawls through secret tunnels and passages, throws the _death_ and _sleep_ spell more times than she cares to count on the soldiers that guard the corridors, breaks into the system and turns off any alarms and defensive mechanisms.

Finally, she picks up the lock on the door of his cell and listens in satisfaction as it rips open after her well-aimed kick.

"My decision hasn't changed in the last half an hour," she hears him say. "I won't tell you anything about Galbadia _or_ Balamb. Go away or off me, if you will. Doesn't really..." The rest of his words die on his lips as he finally turns and sees her. She almost cries in relief at seeing his face.

"Get up, Seifer. We're going away," she tells him roughly.

"Quistis -" he chokes.

"Shuddup. Get up. Come with me," she orders, not really trusting herself to say anything else.

He complies.

_XIII. Stardust_

They almost make it when his escape is noticed.

"What happened to your husband?" he asks in-between fighting enemies with a gunblade she had stolen a few days before. "I imagine..." Hit. "He won't be all smiles and roses..." Slash. "... when he realizes ..." _Fire Cross._ "you broke into a terrorist organization..." Firra. "... to help your ex-lover."

"Didn't marry him," she says simply as she throws a grenade in the far distance. It explodes and the the door behind which are most of the terrorists is destroyed.

"Ah," is all he says and doesn't hide his smile.

They manage to escape from the underground base they're in and run all the way to Deiling, which is the nearest town.

_XIV. Where the heart is_

It's _then_ when she finally contacts the Gardens.

She winces as she hears the shouts of her friends and family on the phone.

"Quistis!"

"Thank Hyne!"

"You scared the hell out of us!"

"We thought you'd end up like Squall!"

"Is Seifer well?"

"He's okay. We're okay. Don't worry. It's over. Give me Xu. I need to talk to her about the organization."

After an brief report of her personal mission, she hangs up and smiles at Seifer. The smile she receives in return melts her heart.

A helicopter from Balamb would come to retrieve them in four hours.

"So... what are your plans from now on, Instructor? No husband, six months 'forceful' vacation from your work...?"

"No plan. And you? Do you plan to remain in Galbadia?"

"... No. After finally achieving my romantic dream, I'd found out it was not as romantic. Neither dreamy, as a matter of fact."

"Then what will you do?" she asks him.

"Do you think Balamb will have me back again?"

She smiles.

"I think it will."

"And you?" he finally asks.

_XV. Like bread and butter, honey and milk_

She walks through the grassy hill on which they used to run away as children (she has given up on Shiva, once and for all, and Shiva has given up on her memories), and slowly dances her way to the sandy coast.

As she sits beneath the setting sun and listens to the waves of the sea wash at the shore and the crackle of the near fire, she hears footsteps in the sand and looks up.

"A dance?" he asks and holds out a hand.

She takes it and he helps her stand up (even though she could do it well by herself).

There is no real music, but the sounds of nature - yet it is almost as if the waves and the fire and the seagulls and the now rising crickets sing the song from that one dance two years ago.

They spin and spin and the sand is dancing along with their feet, as Seifer lifts her chin and Quistis looks at him with her piercing eyes before she slowly closes them.

* * *

**"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."**

**-**_Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Persian poet, philosopher and mystic_


End file.
